Fantasy Caravan Day 46 - Free Day in Valdez

Tuesday was a free day in Valdez. We had a couple of things we wanted to do...

First, we went to the fish hatchery...

Beautiful blue skies on Tuesday!

There were information boards and a path along the fish ladder on one side of the stream.

Fish trying to jump the weir.

Carl was on the other side of the stream from the fish hatchery.

SO many fish!

Looking down the stream toward the inlet from the bay

Cue the JAWS theme!

Interloper swimming upstream

Not sure if it is a seal or a sea lion swimming upstream:

But another one was coming, definitely a sea lion:

Sea lion

Sea lion continuing upstream:

Checking out the neighborhood

There were a few information displays about the fish hatchery --

through the windows into the incubation building, we could see some operations -- this was picking up the fish that had come in through the "raceways".

These workers were sorting fish, though it was not obvious why -- maybe by gender? It would have been nice to have a bit more explanation.

We'd enjoyed our time at the fish hatchery, though we had hoped to see some bears there. 

We decided to drive back up the road which we had driven in on Sunday, to enjoy some sites in the sunshine.

Worthington Glacier -- a lot of moraine pushed up on the right edge.

Lake at the bottom of Worthington Glacier

We crossed Thompson Pass -- on our way on Sunday, I had seen some information about Thompson Pass in The Milepost: "Thompson Pass (elev. 2678 feet), named by Captain Abercrombie in 1899, is comparatively low elevation but above timberline. ... The National Climatic Center credits snowfall extremes in Alaska to the Thompson Pass station, where record measurements are: 974.5 inches for season (1952-53), 298 inches for month (February 1953), and 62 inches for 24-hour period (December 1955)."

We stopped at a pullout...

... and appreciated the views...

... all around us!

We had seen a couple of tunnels on the way up, so decided to stop on our way back to Valdez --

hand cut tunnel

A bit wet for entry though

We stopped again at Bridal Veil Falls.

Keystone Canyon

Horsetail Falls

We decided to head back to the fish hatchery to see how it was different at high tide...

We saw folks pulled off on the side of the road...

... generally means some kind of wildlife (can you see the small bear in the upper middle right?).

A video with him moving may make it easier to see him:

Wow, the Jeep is even shining in the sunshine!

Looking from above the weir, the bay has come up a lot!

Fish just below the weir at high tide:

Fish coming up to fish ladder

Video of fish coming up to fish ladder:

Fish and sea lions beyond the weir:

One of the sea lions had crossed the weir and was feeding in the creek -- I'm not sure why, there were a LOT more fish on the outside of the weir...

But you *must* see the sea lion crossing back over the weir -- the way he (or she) moves reminds me of the way I *think* I look when hauling myself out of a swimming pool!:

... except I don't do that elegant backwards splash!

Sign marking Valdez (we didn't see it well in the rain when we came in on Sunday)

We enjoyed our free day in/around Valdez!